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Image of the Month - August 2017

This is a wonderful example of a face-on spiral galaxy, taken in good observing conditions in August.

The galaxy in question is Messier 74, or NGC628, which lies around 32 million light years from Earth and contains around 100 billion stars, so is similar in size to the Milky Way.

To create this 3 colour image we have used the tools within the LTImage software, including selecting the option to show more detail in the image. Although this increases the noise in the background of the image, in this case it has paid off as the conditions on the evening, specifically the good seeing conditions, mean that the background isn't too noisy.

To learn more about seeing why not try doing our activity on the subject.

Download the files below and have a go at creating this image for yourself using LT Image: